As a first-time e-commerce owner, one of the earliest things you will need to decide is whether you want to build a personal brand or a business brand. Although both avenues have their own lists of advantages and disadvantages, it is important to focus your attention on the one that can benefit your company the most. But what’s the difference between the two?

Well, a personal brand is built around you and your personality. This usually means that you would brand your business with your own name.

While a business brand is built around the identity that you create for your business. This means that you can craft a unique name for your business that is entirely independent from your personal name.

What are the advantages of creating a personal brand?

Personal brands are known for being more flexible. If down the road you want to focus your attention on a different product or service, you won’t need to change the name of your company. Also, if you’re a self-promoting, one-person industry such as an independent artist, author, motivational speaker or athletic coach, then developing a strong personal brand that is connected to your name would be the best route for you to go to get the word out.

What are the disadvantages of creating a personal brand?

By using your personal name, rather than business branding, it can sometimes be harder for customers to know what you’re all about. In order to combat this, you will need to create a strong tagline — a catchphrase or slogan — that you use in everything that you do (social media, advertising etc.). You can also write lots of blogging content that speak about your area of expertise. Needless to say, it can be incredibly hard to sell a personally-branded business down the road if you lose interest in running the company.

What are the advantages of business branding?

The best part about creating a business brand is that it forces you to think through your future plans for your business right from the get go. This is very beneficial as it allows you to start focusing on your target market and telling consumers what your business is going to be known for. Creating this vision allows you to position your business within your niche, build excitement and essentially make your business much easier to sell in the future. Think of this as an investment. Once you want to retire or your business venture ideas change, it’s much easier to sell a business without your name attached to it.

What are the disadvantages of business branding?

One of the biggest cons of business branding is the hours of hard work at the start. It’s incredibly hard to create a name for your business when you are still trying to decide what your company fully offers. That’s why it’s important to make sure you have it figured out. After all, business brands aren’t very flexible when it comes to change and if you decide that you want to change your course down the road chances are your business name will also need a revamp.

Which way did you go? Personal branding or business branding? Tell us in the comments section below.